While you can enforce a valid common law trademark, an easy step to better protect your trademarks in Washington state, is to register your ownership of the mark with the Washington Secretary of State. Most people will need some, limited, legal help to make sure they are correctly completing the form, but this is a low cost step that will give you some protection from trademark infringement.

On advantage to a registered mark owner is that the Washington State Trademark Statute allows the owner of a registered trademark to possibly recover reasonable attorneys fees and costs if the court finds that the infringer acted in bad faith. Thus, registration with the Washington Secretary of State can give a trademark owner powerful negotiating leverage.